Two analysts have blamed the rise of social media for fuelling society’s preference for personality-driven politics, often at the expense of leadership competence.
James Chin of the University of Tasmania and Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid said the phenomenon was not unique to Malaysia alone but part of a broader global trend which has seen populist appeal increasingly overshadow substantive leadership.
They said social media has become an echo chamber, with algorithms continually reinforcing users’ existing views by serving up content aligned with their preferences.
“Because they (social media sites) want to keep you on their platform, they keep showing you things you like. They know that if they show you something new, you won’t like it,” said Chin.
“We end up not being willing to listen to alternative views. We only want to listen to views like our own.”
Fauzi agreed, saying the phenomenon has fractured societies. He also said the immediacy of social media has made long-term conversations almost impossible.
“Everyone is too fixated on what happens now,” he said.
Social media has given everyone a platform to air their views, said Fauzi, making everyone an “instant amateur expert in everything”. This, in turn, has given rise to a mistrust in authorities, institutions and genuine experts in various fields he added.
Fauzi said these factors could result in frequent policy shifts and short-lived governments, with political leaders looking to reach compromises that ultimately prove unworkable to stay in power.
Chin said the instant nature of social media has shortened the attention spans of users. Content is increasingly framed to retain viewers and boost engagement, he said, with priority given to retaining user attention rather than impart substance.
“So we gravitate towards personalities rather than policies — because policies are too hard to explain (in short videos or postings),” he said.
Last week, PKR‘s Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli lamented that Malaysians tend to evaluate politicians based on personality and sentiment rather than their actual competence to lead and govern.
He said this had led to the promotion of many individuals as prime ministerial candidates, although few have solutions to the nation’s problems.
Rafizi added that Malaysian society must rethink how it elects politicians and political parties if it hopes to overcome several persistent issues plaguing the nation.
Chin said the global trend appears unstoppable, citing the election of US president Donald Trump as an example. He said Rafizi was simply highlighting a well-known problem “that we don’t have a solution to at this present moment”.
He warned that the widespread use of AI will see content curated for social media that further entrenches personality-driven politics.
Govts ‘fear’ social media
Fauzi said governments have grown to fear the power of social media to the point that they have sidelined the views of scholars and academics in policy-making.
“It has reached such an extent that sentiments are more important than knowledge when making decisions.
“But what normally happens is that these giants of knowledge are dishonourably labelled if their views run against social media trends,” said Fauzi.
He called on national leaders to prioritise establishing a knowledgeable society premised on merit by taking the views of scholars into account regardless of their political affiliations.
